I had a chance to spend some time with Maryland CPA, Javier Goldin of the Goldin Group CPAs. He was at our #CPASummit in December and then at #DCPA19 in Seattle where he was offically recognized for his innovation in applying technology to his Outsourced Accounting (OAS/CAS) and Virtual CFO Services. As the 2019 Innovative Practioner of the Year. He joins the ranks of three other Maryland CPAs who were recognized for the same award in 2018, Samantha Bowling, CPA as the winner and two more Maryland CPAs as runners up, Rusty Davis and David Butler.

What is so cool about this is they were all recogmized for different 'innovations':

• Samantha Bowling, CPA at the firm Garbelman & Winslow and Past-Chair of the MACPA was recognized as an early adopter (make that very early adopter) of Artifical Intelligence for audits for non-profits, small-mid-sized businesses in a small firm.
• Rusty Davis, CPA was recognized as runner up for his work building a cloud-based, flexible, remote, mobile firm  with bundled, high-end advisory / reporting / tax / technology engagements. And no timesheets!
• David Butler, CPA and his firm, Rosenblum and Butler implemented a software solution at his firm called Complex Interests, which allows the firm to take its practice of stewardship over complex family wealth and turn it into work product for the firm’s clients.

Then in New York a few weeks ago, at the AICPA Executive Roundtable, I got to hear Javier share his firm’s story with his three innovative values:

1. We encourage failure. We have a self-assessment where we asked, ‘How many times did you fail?'
2. Innovation is not originality. We’re not looking for an Einstein or a DaVinci. We want people who are creative – they can take a little bit of everything that’s out there.
3. Everybody has an opportunity to contribute. We have champions, but everybody should be innovative – particularly those who are on the front line with our clients.

What I took away from this is innovation can come in many flavors and sizes and while most have a major technology component, it is the imagination of what can be done with the technology and the services to solve client needs that really matters.

Congratulations again Samantha, Javier, Rusty and David! #MarylandCPAProud

Here Samantha's story of implementing AI in Auditing (Mindbridge AI) at a small firm on this AICPA Podcast.